Indian nun, mother arrested for 'offending' religion
The newly professed nun was arrested after she conducted a thanks-giving Mass inside her home
A Catholic nun and her mother were among five people arrested for allegedly offending religious feelings and promoting enmity between religions after they joined a Mass in the central Indian Chhattisgarh state.
Police arrested newly professed Sister Bibha Kerketta, a member of Daughters of St Anne (DSA) on June 6 night along with her mother, aunt, uncle and a driver from her home at Balachapper village, Jashpur diocese.
“The nun and her family members were booked in a totally false case,” said Father Nirmal Minj, parish priest of the nun's Shanti Bhavan parish.
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The arrested were kept in the police station at night and were produced before the court the following day, on June 7 evening. The court granted bail to the nun’s uncle but remanded others into judicial custody, Minj said.
Kerketta became a professed nun in December and the family “celebrated a thanksgiving Mass at her home,” Minj told UCA News on June 8.
“Close family members, priests and nuns from the locality attended the Mass and had a fellowship meal as well,” he said.
Soon after the guests left, some 20 men, some of them from the nearby villages, forced their way into her home and started abusing them, the priest said.
“They slapped her mother and threw away the Bible” Minj said.
"The men also questioned why they became Christian and threatened them. Soon the police arrived and took five of them to the police station,” he said.
The court on June 8 agreed to take up their bail application on June 13, the priest said.
“It is very sad. We don’t understand how the christian worship is portrayed as something creating enmity between people of other religions,” the priest regretted.
Father John Crus Minj, the secretary to the Jashpur bishop condemned the attack on the nun, her family members and others.
Crus Minj said they will appeal to the state government to take immediate action and stop the harassment of Christians.
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